Connect Your iPhone or Android to Any TV: A Guide for AirPlay, Chromecast and HDMI

When you visit friends and family during the holiday season, you may want to show off your latest photos or stream movies to their television while spending time together. However, it can be difficult to log into your streaming service account on someone’s TV.

Fortunately, with most newer TVs, you probably don’t need to log in to do this. In most cases, the phone that you are currently carrying can connect directly to a TV and you can share or stream your screen using your own accounts saved on your phone.

Many TVs now come with built-in support for AirPlay, Chromecast, or Miracast, all of which let you connect your phone wirelessly. The tricky part isn’t whether you can connect your phone to your TV (because you probably can). Instead, you’ll need to know which wireless streaming connection your phone supports and make sure the TV you want to connect to also supports it.

We’ll talk about how it works, depending on whether you’re using an iPhone or an Android phone. We’ll also let you know when you’ll use AirPlay, Chromecast, or Miracast to connect, depending on the device you have.

iPhone supports AirPlay and Chromecast

Apple iPhone devices have two ways to connect wirelessly to a TV. On a system level, an iPhone can use AirPlay to stream media from video and music apps to any device that also supports AirPlay. It was originally exclusive to the Apple TV, but AirPlay now supports many TVs made by Samsung, LG, TCL, and Vizio, as well as streaming devices from Roku. Chances are, if your device supports the Apple TV app, its settings also support AirPlay.

You can access AirPlay in two ways. If you’re using a supported app like Paramount Plus, you’ll need to tap the AirPlay icon represented by a TV with a triangle. You can also access AirPlay from your phone’s Control Center by tapping the two rectangle icon, then selecting the device you’re streaming to. Using the latter option, you can also mirror your phone’s screen to your TV to display apps like Instagram or TikTok that don’t include AirPlay from within.

If you are trying to connect to a TV with Google TV operating system or Google TV StreameriPhone also supports Chromecast. Similar to using AirPlay from a media app, you tap the Chromecast icon represented by a rectangle with three wavy lines. You will then tap the device you want to stream to. The biggest difference between how AirPlay and Chromecast work on iPhone is that you won’t be able to mirror your iPhone screen to Chromecast.

Some apps like YouTube will mix these streaming options for convenience. When you press Google’s Chromecast button, a submenu will let you choose between using AirPlay or Chromecast or linking directly to your TV’s YouTube app using a code.

And if you want to connect your iPhone to your TV using an HDMI cable, you can use either a USB-C to HDMI adapter if you have one iPhone15 or more recent or Lightning to HDMI adapter for iPhone 14 and earlier. This adapter will allow screen mirroring without using AirPlay.

Android still supports Chromecast, sometimes supports Miracast

Android phones don’t support AirPlay, but they supports two wireless streaming options that connect to almost any TV.

First, all Android phones include Chromecast support. So, if your TV integrates Chromecast or has a Google TV Streamer attached, you can connect your phone by tapping the Cast icon from an app. You can also set up a screen casting shortcut in the Quick Settings rollout, which will provide an even faster way to quickly cast to your TV. CNET Nelson Aguilar has developed a guide for that.

And while it’s not supported on all Android phones, Samsung and Motorola both make Android phones that support Miracast for screen mirroring. These features are called Smart View and Ready For respectively and will allow you to connect your phone to TVs or displays that support a setting often called Screen Mirroring. Newer Motorola phones, like the Razr Ultracall this feature Smart Connect. What’s unique about Miracast is that many Windows PCs also support this style of casting, and on my recent trip it came in handy for playing some Jackbox games.

An additional note on these features from Samsung and Motorola is that both support connecting your phone to a TV or computer monitor using a USB-C to HDMI cable, if you have one on hand. This can be especially useful if you’re trying to do a more data-intensive activity on your phone, like connecting to a larger screen in order to use your phone more like a computer.

More Tips on Connecting Your Phone to a TV Wirelessly

Even though many TVs and streaming devices support one or more of these methods, it’s entirely possible that when you’re traveling you won’t get a perfect match. For example, maybe you have an Android phone, but the TV in your hotel room only supports AirPlay or blocks access to the HDMI port. But for home use, now that many TVs support multiple connection options, you have a good chance of being able to set up a method that works for everyday viewing.

You should also keep in mind that, just like streaming video, your network can also affect the effectiveness of a wireless connection to your TV. With this in mind, you’ll want your phone to be as close to a router as possible, which will make it easier to connect. If your video quality degrades while streaming, you may also want to turn streaming off and on again to reset the connection.

But as long as your phone and TV can connect with one of the methods above, you should be free to stream any movie or music from your phone to your TV.